


Le Tailleur solitaire

by winxixia



Series: Roleplay [2]
Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 20:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15178595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winxixia/pseuds/winxixia
Summary: Stanley is a young boy, son of tailors and who loves to wear dresses... He doesn't understand much why it is a bad thing, and spends a lonely childhood, too occupied to work to play with children... Until...





	Le Tailleur solitaire

 

“What a lovely color! And the fabric! Such a quality! And this dress is beautiful! Please, dear child, turn once again!”

The child obeyed. The ruffles seemed to be flying around their small body. It was a delicate show. The customer seemed to be convinced.

“I want to buy this dress,” she said. “I'd also like to command several other.”

“Of course, Madame! Your daughter will be the most beautiful lady around! Stanley, please take off this dress and clean around while I'm taking care of Madame's command.”

Stanley nodded and did as he was told. He was used to wear girl clothes to present them to the customers. It was an idea of his mother, though his father highly disapprouved. His parents were both tailors and they were rather famous. They were always working, refusing to hire anyone, despite it seemed to the little boy they were rich enough to do so. However, they kept answering they wanted to be the only one to sew, assuring no one could do better than them. Since Stanley was old enough, he was helping them, buying the fabric, the string, anything the tailors needed, but he was also cleaning after them. On some days, he had to wear children clothes to show to some possible customer, even dresses.

His father, Monsieur Tissant, was always claiming that a boy shouldn't dress as a girl, that God forbade cross-dressing.

“Can you imagine,” he was always saying, “if he comes to like it? You're making him a sinner and we are too to make him do so!”

His wife, a pragmatic woman, always calmly answered the same way.

“He won't wear dresses the rest of his life. But you have to admit our female customers like to see him with these outfits, he's a great model... And at least we don't need to pay him.”

Stanley often heard these words and sadly wondered if he was only a tool in the hands of his parents. When he was out to buy some material, he could see the other children running outside and playing games. He went to school long enough to learn to writee and to count, even though his parents already started to teach him very early, to make him help them with the purchase orders. He was working everyday, even on sunday.

Once, he asked his mother why boys shouldn't wear dresses, and his mother simply said: “Thus said the Lord”. He never asked again. It mad him sad. He enjoyed wearing dresses and envied girls. It was less practical than wearing pants but it was so pretty...

His parents would also travel several times during the year, to sell some clothess to customers living afar from Villeneuve, and also to buy rare products. Stanley had to take care of the shop, the house and also himself. Some of the neighbors were there to helped him, but it was mostly two men, Tom the baker, often offered him sweet cakes and Dick, the fruits seller, brought him vegetables he taught him to cook. Sometimes, it felt like they were more acting as parents than his real parents. Somehow, it was making him sad.

At thirteen years old, he was already able to take care of himself alone since long. He also already had sewed clothes and the customers were more than happy. It was one of the reasons his parents decided to leave longer than usual.

The day before the departure, Monsieur and Madame Tissant gave him the last recommandations.

“Be carfeul with the purchase orders, write correctly! We also need some fabric for the command of Madame Durant. We put money on the table of this. Take care of the shop, my son.”

Madame Tissant said all of this with her hands on her son's shoulders. That was all she would ever give him as affectionate marks. All children would be kissend and hugged by their mother. Stanley would never get any of this. He was patted on his head from time to time when customers were there, but that was all. The little boy said goodbye to his parents. He would see them again in less than two monthes. He could wait. He was used to loneliness.

 

Stanley was sitting on his bed, in the dark. His parents have left three monthes ago, and he was still for them to come back. Something must have happened, but what ? He couldn't leave the shop to go to find them, he didn't even know where he could find any information. He also had no one he could call for help.

He stood up and went to get prepared. He had to open the shop.

As he was going downstairs, he heard someone knocking on the door. He opened to face Monsieur Jean. The man looked sad.

“Stanley... I need you to follow me.”

The child was worried. What could have he done? It wasn't forbidden to work this young. Could it be about his parents? He followed the man a bit confused. They walk to the hometown. A lot of people were there. They all turned to him with the same expression that Monsieur Jean was wearing. He recognized some of his customers.

“Stanley! You're there!”

A lady ran to him and hugged him. He couldn't even talk or escape.

“Poor little boy! What a tragedy!”

“Judith, let him go! He must see the bodies.”

“You can't ask a little boy to see this! We identified them already! Let him breathe! This is already har enough for him!”

“You're the one suffocating him. We need to tell him what happened.”

Judith eventually let him go and Monsieur Jean guided him inside the building and confirmed his fears.

His parents died. They were travelling on the sea when pirates attacked them. They left no survives nor treasures. And they mutilated the bodies...

They were found two weeks ago. Thanks to their papers, they could be identified and so taken back to Villeneuve. Through the very smell told the bodies were in a terrible shape. Stanley was already about to faint, he did once he saw the decomposed bodies.

 

He regained consciousness several minutes later. Judith was beside him, caressing his head.

“Poor little boy,” she said. “All alone...”

She hugged him. All the day, people kept coming to see him, hugging him, kissing him. He couldn't bear it.

“LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

He screamed so much he finally got people to leave. Only Tom and Dick stayed. They simply brought him home, cooked him a dinner and left, assuring him they were taking care of everything. Once again, he was alone. However, this time, he realized he could never get used to loneliness.

 

Several years passed. He was a tailor, appreciated in all the region. He was spending several evenings during the week at the tavern with his friends, Tom and Dick, though sometimes LeFou was pushing them and everyone else in the building to praise Gaston with him. Wh was the chubby man doing so? Did he admire him so much? Or was it... Love?

Love. What a strange word. It was a feeling Stanley never knew. He felt so cold inside. Anyway, all the girls in the town were interested about Gaston, so what would be the point of going after one of them? Especially when no girl would even catch his eyes...

It wouldn't prevent him to live his life. Tom and Dick weren't married and they were alright with this. Plus, he had to take care of the orders he constantly got. He was a busy man. Sometime he had to go to the next town, so he borrowed Dick's cart and horses. He travelled through the forest.

One day, he delivered several outfits in the next town and took the chance to buy some new strings, buttons and some other things he needed. Though he tried to be quick, the night was falling on his way home. The forest was dangerous then, people said that wolves were living there and that they attacked people. Stanley made the horses go faster. However, they stopped right away because of three men who had just jumped in front of them.

“Halte là, pretty boy!” The tallest bandit said. “Give us everything you have and we'll let you go without hurting you.”

It annoyed Stanley. He couldn't fight three men by his own. He couldn't go back to town either. He didn't know what to do. Two men walked to the side of the cart and the last bandit moved on the side too. It was the moment. At Stanley's sign the horses raced. He heard the thieves scream something but he didn't pay attention to them.

“You shouldn't have done that.”

He turned his head only to get punched in the cheek. He almost fell off because of the impact. He saw the tallest bandit on the side of the cart. He jumped on Stanley and pushed him. The tailor violently hit the ground. He was confused for a second and it took him a few seconds before being able to stand up again. He saw that the horses had kept running away. The bandit was still on the ground too. However he recovered faster than Stanley and he took the chance to attack the young man with a knife. Stanley dodged several times until he was finally able to unsheathe his sword. The thief seemed to hesitate for a second before hitting again. The sound of the collidenting blades echoed beteween the trees. They couldn't hear anything else as if all the forest had decided to silently watch them.

Despite the advantage Stanley had with his weapon, he wasn't a good swordman. It didn't take long before his opponent successed to make him lose his sword, before grabbing it. He threathened Stanley, on the ground, with his terrific aura. He lifted the weapon and hit. By reflexe the tailor protected himself by covering himself with his arms. He let out a yelp of pain and held his arm as it got a cut.. The blood was running freely along it until his hand. He was defenseless. He wouldn't be able to dodge the next hit. He was going to die here, in the woods. _Alone._ Would his body ever be found?

He closed his eyes and waited for the lethal hit. All he heard was a shot in the dark. The bandit fell in front of him, killed by a bullet in the back. Stanley looked up at his savior. Gaston was still holding his smoking gun, riding his horse while LeFou was getting down his. He rushed to the tailor's side.

“Oh my God, Stanley! Are you alright?! We found a cart with fabrics on it! So we came to see what happened and we saw someone attacking you. We learnt recently that bandits were in the woods... I suppose this guy was one of them. Here, give me your amr.”

LeFou touched his arm and Stanley shivered.

“I'm sorry,” LeFou said. “I'll be more careful.”

Thanks to some water, the chubby man cleaned his arm before using a handkerchief as a bandage. Stanley was surprised to let him do so. Since the day he saw the corpses of his parents he hated to be touched. Each time it happened he feared that something bad would happen. However, here, he wasn't bothered by LeFou taking care of his injury. He was almost enjoying it for some reason and he didn't even know why. The tailor took his sword and sheathed it. He followed the two men until the cart and they went back Villeneuve together. During the next days LeFou came to see Stanley, to be assured that the young man was doing fine.

The last bandits were caught by Gaston and everyone praised him. Stanley ended up with a scar on his arm but he never talked about it. It was a memory of the day everything changed. He never met anyone as nice, as adorable, as natural as LeFou. Also, for the first time of his life, he hadn't minded someome touching him. For the first of his life, he was in love. He would never have a chance against Gaston but he could at least help the chubby man whenhever he needed so.

 


End file.
